Question: What does it mean to “talk from the center of the group”? What is it?

Answer: When I stop feeling the “I” and begin to feel only “we.”

This feeling should be manifested in us during the discussion, as if we are inseparably tied in a single whole, in one body. I should leave the workshop with this feeling.

Question: Is this the “height of unity”?

Answer: Yes, already I cannot look at things differently. That’s how I see the world, myself, and everything around me.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world. … Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the body of each person. In other words, first, the body divides and completely denies him of the radiance of the soul, and by the force of the Torah and the Mitzva, the body is cleansed, and to the extent of its cleansing, the common soul shines upon him.

You have to make an effort in order to collect all the shattered parts. The number of the particles is 600,000, but actually I collect them not by quantity but by their intensity. It isn’t about numbers, but about how tightly we “cling” to one another—this level of attachment is called 600,000, since by the connection and the power of unity we rise from the level of ZON to the level of Arich Anpin.

Today we cannot imagine this state in the true light, and so we describe it in different ways. Actually Baal HaSulam writes about it, in order to direct us correctly in several ways, I feel 600,000 souls because I am shattered, but if I weren’t everything would seem to me as one whole formation. I feel the intensity of my current existence in this world and not in the eternal life, because I don’t reach the level of 600,000 souls, I don’t evoke the ZON in order to reach my Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), the level of Arich Anpin.

On the one hand I follow the right track to correction, and on the other hand I still don’t perceive the reality in which there is only one soul with the intensity of 600,000, which means that it is attained 620 times more than the Creator has given it. If the created being feels that he is bestowing upon the Creator while receiving, then the intensity of the filling, his understanding and his feeling grow: “How much do I receive, from whom am I receiving, how great is the love between us.” Thus the vessel is evoked in the created being, which is 600,000 times greater than the previous one and in which the intensity of the Light is 620 times greater than before.

Thus, in order to reach the right discernment of the reality in Gmar Tikkun we have to see our present state as divided into 600,000 parts and under 6,000 years—levels, in the intensity of a “very thin candle” instead of the full Light of NRNHY, which is 620 times greater than the initial state.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Baal HaSulam “600,000 Souls”

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Question: How should one use the workshop in order to see the world through the prism of the group?

Answer: It will happen when you create a point of connection. This means that the force that is created between us will reach such an intensity that it will not let us disconnect from it. I will constantly want to be within it. I will understand that only from there can I judge everything within the light of truth and not be mistaken.

Only what I see through the shared focus of the group, the central point of the circle, constitutes the real world. In this way, I can judge and never be incorrect in my judgment.

All of this will be revealed to a person. Thus, he will not want to leave this connection, but will constantly aspire only to strengthen this same point of our unity. In this way, we begin to ascend the levels.

To the extent that we join together and intensify our connection, both quantitatively and qualitatively, we rise higher and higher on the spiritual ladder until we discover the Creator and the connection between us in the form of Partzufim and Sefirot. Then, we begin to see how everything that is described in the sources takes place between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions” 

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From the article “Concerning the Love of Friends,” by Rabash: And so it turns out that if one has love of friends and the attribute of love, the law is that one should want to see the virtue of his friend and not his shortcoming.

So it turns out that if he sees any shortcoming in his friend, it is a sign that it isn’t a shortcoming in his friend but in himself. This means that he has damaged the love of friends and so he sees shortcomings in his friend.

Therefore, he needs to see not that his friend corrects himself, but that he himself needs correction. And when he corrects himself, he will only see the virtue of his friend and not his shortcoming.

It says: “The Lord made an honest man, and they looked from many accounts.” (Ecclesiastes 7; 29). If we perceive the world according to our attributes, thoughts, and desires, we will not be able to get rid of the endless claims and will not be able to reach an agreement, a common denominator. There are egoistic accounts constantly going on in our mind, which do not let us rest and make us run around unnecessarily.

Aiming towards the truth begins from the point in which we feel that we are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), meaning in “there is none else besides Him.” And if I see anything else, it means that my attributes are not adapted to Ein Sof.

There is concealment from Above, the diminishing of the Light according to the 125 degrees. Therefore, I am not in the Light of Ein Sof but on some level of its concealment considering the next higher level as Ein Sof, because I cannot perceive it in my desires. If I perceive such a difference between the ideal and the possible, I understand that instead of the world of Ein Sof, I see this world before me in which there is both good and evil, but this is merely an imprint of myself on the background of the white Light. It turns out that there is nothing to correct but myself, and this is the second point that determines my direction.

This means that I am in the world of Ein Sof and I only need to correct my perception, as it says: “One judges according to his own flaws.”

In order to help us attain correction, there was a very serious preparation called the shattering of the vessels. Because of that, each of us feels that he is detached from others, as if they exist without any connection to him and are strangers to him. This is why we feel that the world is full of details: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking, each of which has its own way of existence, its own fate and purpose, and I am just one of them.

But if I want to attain the world of Ein Sof, I must connect everything to myself, which means to correct my perception to such an extent that I will be able to see that everything is actually in my hands. Everything depends on me, and I have to tilt the whole world to the scale of merit. If I correct myself, I will see that I have corrected everyone.

The world is depicted to me as full of different attributes and differences, but this is because I haven’t attained inside me the agreement and the connection of all my attributes, desires, and thoughts.

Therefore, we see such a big, wide, and complicated world, so looking from the side will help us connect all the matching details inside me, because everything I see on the outside is actually inside me. I perceive everything through my different egoistic thoughts and desires, and so I see so many components in the world. But if I unite all these attributes inside me, then all the attributes will merge in harmony into one whole, as one integral global world, as one system. We all have to reach such a perception of the world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Does our collective reality exist, or does each one build his own individual reality?

Answer: Our collective reality exists similarly to the way we feel ourselves living in one world, but everyone feels it differently. We cannot even measure in what way our feeling of this world is different. In our superficiality, we cannot be included in each other’s desires, I can’t enter your desire and you can’t enter my desire. Each one has his elementary point, which determines the uniqueness of his personality, which he received from the Creator.

The Creator is our common denominator, the factor that unifies us. Only through Him can we connect. Therefore, the center of the group is the starting point of that place, which is called the Creator, or a desire in which He is revealed.

Only in this central point can we understand one another, and at the same time, we discover that we will never be able to feel what is actually happening in the desire of the friend and what he feels. We connect with each other only through the Creator, and even then it is unconsciously!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, ”Talk About the Workshop”

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Man feels the desires, which arise in him, and based only on them he perceives reality, feels it and lives in it. The perception of the world depends on the informational data (Reshimot) revealed in a person, and that is why people don’t understand each other. Indeed, each person sees, feels, perceives, and interprets what’s going on according to his own needs.

Besides this, there are no two similar moments since new desires emerge in us all the time and in accordance with them so do thoughts. That is, the perception of reality changes constantly: A person never remains that same person. From this, one needs to understand that we have no possibility to judge ourselves in our own states, or even more so to judge others.

This is because each person is controlled by that sprout of desire that awakens in him at that moment. The only decision is to learn how to aim towards commonness and unity, above all of these desires. And if all of us are mutually connecting into each other, then we can reach the “common denominator,” which is called the center of the group, unity, the point of connection, Malchut, the collection of all of the souls, longing for the Creator.

It is impossible to judge particular qualities and perceptions of each person at a given moment since this is predetermined from Above. There are people who come to study because they want to receive knowledge and automatically memorize what is written. There are those who are searching for new perceptions and possibilities to discover the upper Light, angels, and spirits.

There are people who by their nature are closer to this method and instinctively long towards unity, while others, having perfectly studied all of the articles about the group, nevertheless, cannot understand that it relates to them and that they need to realize this on themselves. Alternatively, they agree to realize it, but purely externally, like religious rites, instead of investing their heart into this.

All people are different, and based on this, we cannot judge a person. His behavior is derived from the root of his soul and there are many roads which lead to the Creator. That is why only longing is needed for each person to be under the maximum influence of the correct environment, which will help him move on his own path at his own pace, and what will happen, will happen.

We need to be more patient and tolerant of each other regarding the things that have to do with spiritual development. For here a person possesses the freedom of choice only in joining the correct environment. And this depends on the kind of Reshimot that will be revealed in them and which kind of Light that will be influencing him. And the pace and order in moving forward in joining the group are very different from person to person.

There are people who grasp these principles very quickly and are ready for unity. However, this may be because they have a weak desire, which does not cover up the value of unity from them. While in others there may be a very large and rigid egoistic desire, and that is why it is so difficult for them to accept that the whole spiritual goal is revealed inside unity with others.

They are not able to attach importance to commonality and that is why they move forward in another way, the larger part of it in darkness, in concealment, with much hardship. However, at a later time, suddenly, a leap forward happens.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12

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Question: At the Sunday seminar you said that the center of the group did not exist before the breaking of the vessels because the three lines did not exist then, and now we are forming it. What does that mean?

Answer: We have a collection of data, but we have to gather it together into one ourselves.

Let me give an example. Suppose we used to have a mosaic image depicting the sun, clouds, a meadow, and several animals and people on it. It’s a pretty picture. Then this picture was broken into parts and the parts were mixed up.

Now you have to put the picture together again, but it will not be the same as the previous one anymore. That’s because you are adding your own component to it, the difference between what was created from existence and what was created from absence. In other words, the difference between the Creator and the creature is embedded into the mosaic, and the image transforms from flat to multidimensional.

In Kabbalah this is designated as a 620-fold addition. However, this is not talking about a quantitative addition, but about new details in the perception of reality.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12

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We can feel something new every minute, not just once a year. The point is that many times we receive new things, but cannot feel them. We cannot perceive them since we have no vessel for them.

Miracles happen to us every day, and we find ourselves before “Mt. Sinai.” There are endless innovations because the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is before us.

Everything depends only on our ability to perceive things, on our vessels. Therefore, a blessed innovation is when a person can feel. Everything is measured with regard to the person who attains, so we must work on our sensitivity, on the vessels.

The Reshimot (informational genes) are constantly evoked inside us. We go through many states, but at the moment, we are developing passively, on the beastly level, unable to feel the essence of these changes, unable to attain the intensity of the level, the connection with the Creator.

The difference in the levels can be compared to buying something new, bringing it home, and putting it in the living room, whether it is a flowerpot or a dog, or someone who came to visit me. This is what we feel when we are brought inside the King’s palace; it all depends on the form we have when we enter it.

Am I an object, a plant, or a living thing? Have I prepared my deficiency so that I can consciously enter the palace and understand where I am, thanks to the equivalence of form, like a human being that resembles the Creator, the host?

It all depends on the preparation of our vessels. We go through many states unconsciously in the form of an inanimate object, a plant, or a living thing, so we don’t feel anything new in them. Only the change a human being goes through is considered an innovation, when he attains, understands and feels in order to resemble the Creator
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/12

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Being on this side of the Machsom (barrier), we don’t see the reasons for our actions and we think that we are independent. However, the result actually is predetermined and it summons the actions that will lead to it.

Question: But it says that even if the reward is guaranteed, we still have to do our work. So is this our independence, our free will?

Answer: I wish we would come to that and see that the whole world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is spread before us. No matter what you do, the Creator gives you everything that is good, but like a guest sitting before the host, you are prepared to receive from Him only through “restriction” and a Masach (screen).

Question: And each time a person has to decide: “Am I now going to do what should be done?”

Answer: Of course. Then you discover bestowal on the part of the Creator.

He wants to teach you to receive in order to bestow. On the part of the Creator there are no limitations, but He does that in order to bring you to His level where you will acquire the understanding and the recognition and not just the filling that is only the means. If you receive more or less, it is only the means, while the goal is to reach adhesion.

Adhesion is not the filling, but the pleasure from being similar to the Creator. It is above the game of the “Lights and the vessels” and this is the fulfillment of the “point in the heart,” it is the utmost pleasure.

On the one hand, we say that the goal of our development is the adhesion. On the other hand, we say that the goal of creation is pleasure and delight. So it turns out that adhesion equals pleasure.

Actually, it is always about levels of pleasure, since the desire, the vessel, doesn’t feel anything but that. The pleasure is behind every detail of my perception. For example, I differentiate colors to the degree that they bring me pleasure.

In every situation we measure the pleasures and usually connect according to their forms because we have a similar form. Upward and downward, strength and weakness, heat and cold, we check everything according to this principle, and it all stems from the impression of the desire from the filling or from lack of filling.

Our desire is divided into many discernments and shades that are determined by our five senses according to parallel ranges and levels. One way or another, there is nothing but the desire. Everything is measured by my feeling, even the most neutral things. I don’t feel and don’t identify anything that doesn’t touch my feeling. Every discernment I make receives an “emotional sign” which I measure. Behind all the words and the names there are the emotions, the state my desire is in. This is what our language is based on.

Question: I know the pleasures that fill me. I know what I yearn for. But what does it mean “to resemble the Creator?” What kind of filling is that? The feeling of belonging to something great?

Answer: If you take the internality of your heart, something that is very deep and personal,   and try to connect this hidden spark to the center of the group, you will fulfill your “point in the heart.”

Question: And this means to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Yes. because the center of the group is the depiction of the Creator. This is the picture that is depicted in your vessels. You don’t know what Light is by itself. For you the Light is a phenomenon that you discover in the vessel. When our vessels are connected, when each one annuls himself and wants to reach the connection of all the points into one, this is the depiction of the Creator. This means that we are adhered to Him.

Thus, if I am adhered to the group, I am adhered to the Creator. There, inside among the friends are all the discernments of His portrait.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Humanity has been developing for ages, but in which direction? If we look at nature, we see that nature tends toward balance. Heat and cold, pressure and vacuum, balance each other.

All natural phenomena tend toward the balance of forces and mutual inclusion, as this is the most constant and stable state that is pressure-free. Eventually, everything will balance. By that, we can understand what Kabbalists tell us about our situation and about the fact that we must reach a state of balance with the Creator, with general nature, since the Creator and nature are the same thing.

What does it mean to reach a state of balance with Him? The Creator is the attribute of bestowal and love, and we should reach the same thing whether we like it or not. The Creator constantly bestows upon us, and from inside, operates the “engine” of our growing ego so that we constantly feel that we are under growing pressure, in a state that is increasingly unbalanced with the Creator.

This obliges us to do something. Until now and throughout our history, meaning our development, we have been trying to balance the pressure with the help of different technologies, social structures, habits, and means to protect ourselves from the heat and the cold, from pressure and other such changes.

Nature is constant, while we are constantly developing from the inside by a chain of Reshimot (reminiscences) that constantly change. Our resistance toward nature constantly grows.

All the changes take place inside us. Even if we see an external world that changes, such as geological and historical periods, generations, or whatever, it all takes place inside us.

We radiate this reality outward, although there is actually nothing on the outside. A person is a closed “box,” and the picture of the world is depicted inside it. However, he feels this picture as though it were on the outside.

Similarly, our eyes turn this picture upside down. The eye catches the entire world in an opposite way, then the brain converts it again. If we were to put on special glasses that do the same thing, after a while, the brain will get used to it and convert the picture in the right direction. This illustrates the fact that all changes take place inside me, not on the outside.

Therefore we say that, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him,” the one constant force that operates and influences me. He has prepared all the Reshimot (informational genes) inside me, and everything that I discover in my life, in my world, in my reality, is the result of the Reshimot. They are responsible for everything I can see, hear, taste and feel.

I constantly must try to remember that, if something needs to be changed, it is me. The Kabbalistic method isn’t meant for the correction of the world, but, with its help, a person corrects himself and his perception. So, despite common knowledge, if a person wants to enter the spiritual picture, he must refocus his vision.

Stereograms are based on the same principle. In order to see them, a person must refocus his vision. How can we change the focus in order to discern the new layer of reality? It is very simple. We must accept the world as a reality that is managed by one force and that all the changes are taking place through my Reshimot.

I constantly try to perceive and understand the situation, to remember that I always am facing the one force inside me and that the Reshimot that are constantly changing inside me are opposite to that force. So, I must reach the balance we spoke about every moment in my life.

The main law of nature is that, despite everything that is evoked inside me, I build myself so that I can be as similar to the Creator as possible, and not to differ from Him in my attributes. This is the main thing.

By attaining the current level, I rise to the next level. Thus, I balance myself with the Creator in every parameter, in all 125 degrees, by becoming totally equal and similar to Him, and achieving total balance.

On the whole, it is a simple schema. The world is constant, but he changes inside me, colors it anew each time, and I must be balanced with the force that gives and stabilizes the current picture for me.
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From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Lesson 3

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